LAUNCH OF ‘RAINBOW RIDE’ RICKSHAW PROJECT
On the last day (8th October, 2012) of nationwide celebration of ‘Joy of Giving Week’ Lakkshya Foundation launched ‘Rainbow Ride’ Rickshaw project to support the education of underprivileged children.
Education, we all agree, can not only contribute to our economic growth but also can bring the changes in health, women empowerment, alarming growth rate of population and overall social development. In India about 1/3 of our population under the age of 18 can afford to reach to VIII standard! And 15% of those children who reach VIII standard fail to make the move from upper primary to secondary schooling and only 7% who make it to high school graduate. Besides Government initiatives, so many institutions and individuals have been doing their bit but nothing seems enough. In our initial stage of our study to address this issue we tried to find out the root cause of illiteracy and we were convinced to the fact that its poverty that tops among all the causes. Once the fight against poverty and hunger is removed education comes automatically followed by development and civilization. On the other hand there is abundance of unutilised manpower. So we thought of something where we can utilise these manpower to generate and uplift their livelihood and make them able as well to share the responsibility in the long run. To make people self-sustainable in initial stage they will be needing sufficient financial aids and support.
Launch of ‘Rainbow Ride’ Rickshaw Project:
As part of various projects and initiatives to make people self-sustainable ‘Rainbow Ride Rickshaw’ project aimed to support child education was launched at a small function at Parijat Academy, Pamohi, Gorchuk. Under this project rickshaws were donated to the selected guardians/ parents of the children of the school and each guardian will take responsibility of education expenses of 2 children (one, of course from their own family and the other one from another family of that school/ organisation). Under this project the guardian will also become the owner of that very rickshaw after 18 months to support their child’s education life long. In this initiative the Foundation tied up with ‘Deep Bahan- CRD Rickshaw Bank’, Guwahati and remodeled the rickshaws with some additional features. The rickshaws will have some F&G and educational stationery items besides drinking water for the passengers providing an additional income source for the rickshaw puller. The rickshaws will also have local newspapers and will be loaded with solar lamps, FM radio and mobile charger. Foundation is also working on an additional feature of pre-recorded audio messages to welcome the riders and spread the awareness of education.
Event Activities:
On the occasion a discussion was held on the subject ‘Promotion of Sustainable Projects to Spread and Support Education’. Mr. Vijay Pandit Dasa & Mr. Surajshrestha Prabhu from Akshayapatra Foundation, Guwahati, Mrs. Neeru Basumatary from a local based NGO and RJ Veer were present as guest and enlightened the audience with their thoughts and ideas for Promoting Low-cost Sustainable Projects for all round development of the community and appraised the Foundation’s initiative with the Rickshaw project. On the occasion Debasish Nath, Founder of Lakkshya Foundation, urged the parents and guardians of the children to come forward and share the responsibility of the education of their own children by being self-dependent through various low-cost sustainable projects. Lakkshya Foundation and all the guests present on the occasion hailed Uttam Teron’s untiring and remarkable effort to promote education by providing free education to all the children for the last 9 years or so. On behalf of the Foundation Debasish also stressed the need of public participation in large number to share the burden of the efforts by the people like Uttam Teron. The Foundation also launched ‘elevate’ Child Sponsorship Programme which will enable general public to sponsor the cost of education for children in need.
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